WXIA-TV
'''WXIA-TV ch. 11, is an NBC-affiliated TV station in Atlanta, Georgia. Popularly known by it's branding slogan 11 Alive, WXIA is owned by the Gannett Company alongside WATL (ch. 36), Atlanta's MyNetworkTV affiliate. The station's studios & offices are located @ One Monroe Place on the north end of Atlanta's Midtown area & it's transmitter is located in the city's Northeast section. WXIA is also available to Dish Network customers nationally for those that cannot receive NBC over-the-air in their area through National Programming Service. History The station signed on the air on September 30, 1951 as WLTV, an ABC affiliate on ch. 8 (the second Atlanta station on this channel after WSB-TV moved to ch. 2 a year later), by a group of Atlanta businessmen. In 1953, the station was bought by the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, who changed it's call letters to WLWA (often rendered as WLW-A). Crosley then moved it to ch. 11 to alleviate interference with WROM, ch. 9 in Rome (later moved north to Chattanooga as WTVC), with ch. 8 being reallocated for educational use by the FCC in May 1960. (WGTV was started by the University of Georgia on ch. 8 in 1960.) WLWA was purchased in 1962 by Richard Fairbanks of Indianapolis as part of a settlement between Crosley & Fairbanks. Crosley had started WLWI (now WTHR) in Indianapolis in 1957, but Fairbanks insisted that the last VHF allocation in Indianapolis should go to a local owner. Eventually, the 2 companies agreed to what amounted to a trade, in which Crosley kept WLWI while Fairbanks bought WLWA. The Atlanta station's calls then became WAII-TV, using the slogan "The Eyes of Atlanta" & the calls standing for A'tlanta's 11 ('II)". The station began calling itself "News Watch 11" in 1963 & began broadcasting news in color for the 1st time in March 1967. The station was sold to Pacific & Southern Broadcasting of Phoenix, Arizona in 1968 & became known as WQXI-TV (the calls were originally used on Ch. 36, currently WATL in 1954-1955). Pacific & Southern later merged with Combined Communications. The station assumed the WXIA-TV call letters in 1974 & 1st used the branding 11 Alive in 1976. In 1979, Combined merged with Gannett in what became the biggest media merger in history up to that time. On September 1 1980, WXIA became an NBC affiliate, due to market leader WSB-TV's signing with ABC. This could be traced to ratings: NBC slid to a very poor 3rd place; meanwhile, ABC was in 1st place for most of the late 1970s & was seeking out stronger & better affiliates in many markets including Atlanta. So during the summer of 1980, the 2 stations conducted an experiment unusual for a large market: WXIA aired NBC daytime shows in the morning & ABC daytime shows in the afternoon, while WSB aired ABC shows in the morning & NBC shows in the afternoons. When the experiment was over on that same day, both stations finally swapped affiliations for good. WXIA also airs the NBC Wx+ service on it's DT on-air signal, as well as on Comcast's digital cable system in the Atlanta area. WXIA formerly had a partnership with The Weather Channel to use their weather forecasters & provide local forecasts. WXIA began airing it's daily local newscasts in HD, the 1st Atlanta station to do so, on February 2, 2006. To signal the conversion to HD, an HD-friendly new studio from Production Design Group, Ltd. was built & graphics from Giant Octopus were created. On June 5 2006, Gannett agreed to purchase WATL from the Tribune Company, now affiliated with MyNetworkTV. The purchase price was $180 million. Since WATL is not among Atlanta's 4 largest TV stations, the FCC permitted this sale. The sale was finalized on August 7, 2006 & as a result, Gannett is now the owner of Atlanta's 1st TV duopoly, as well as duopolies in Denver & Jacksonville. WATL occasionally airs NBC programs when WXIA is not able to for news-related emergencies & other reasons. Also as a result of the WATL acquisition, WXIA management decided to move the studios for both stations to WATL's old location @ One Monroe Place, leaving WXIA's longtime location @ 1611 West Peachtree Street behind competetor WSB-TV. WXIA & WATL began broadcasting from the new studios on July 27, 2008. From the early 1970s onward, ch. 11's newscasts waged a spirited battle with WAGA-TV for second place behind long-dominant WSB-TV. Since WAGA switched to FOX in 1994, WXIA has been a solid runner-up, usually finishing well ahead of perennial 3rd-place finisher WGCL-TV. Station branding "11 Alive" 11 Alive has been WXIA's on-air branding since 1976, when then-owner Combined Communications adopted the practice of using the word "Alive" as part of the monikers @ most of their stations. The use of "Alive" in station names was popular in the mid-to-late-1970s. New York's WPIX also used the legendary "11 Alive" nickname from 1976-1986, as did Pittsburgh's NBC affiliate WIIC (now WPXI) in the mid-to-late 1970s. After Gannett acquired Combined in 1979, many of the former Combined stations stopped using "Alive" in their names, though WXIA continued calling itself "11 Alive," as it had established a very strong following under that name. Fort Wayne's WPTA, another ex-Combined station, continues to call itself "21 Alive" today. In 1994, Gannett dropped the "11 Alive" moniker as part of an image makeover. However, only a year later, WXIA began calling itself "11 Alive" once again due to popular demand of it's viewers. Newscast branding *''News Watch 11'' (1963-1966; as WAII-TV) *''Instant News'' (1966-1969) *''Eyewitness News'' (1969-1972; as WQXI-TV) *''Pro News'' (1972-1974 as WQXI-TV; 1974-1976 as WXIA-TV) *''11 Alive Newsroom'' (1976-1984) *''11 Alive News'' (1984-1994, 1996-present) *''11 News'' (1994-1996) Station slogans *''The News You Expect. The Balance You Deserve.'' (2006-present) *''Atlanta's HD News Leader'' (2006-present) *''Home of the 11-Minute Advantage'' (1997-2006) *''News @ the Speed of Life (1995-1997) *''Atlanta's NewsChannel'' (1993-1994) *''Lets all be there on 11 Alive!'' (1984-1986) DTV WXIA-DT broadcasts on DT ch. 10. The station's DT channel is multiplexed with virtual ch. 11.2 as NBC Wx+. The national Wx+ service was discontinued on December 1 2008, however, some stations continue to air national & local radar with the Wx+ branding, supplied by The Weather Channel. WXIA-DT will remain on ch. 10 after analog broadcasts end on February 17, 2009. See also *WXIA-TV personalities *WQXI-AM *WSTR-FM *WATL (TV) External links *11 Alive's Website